Kunsthauscafe

02 April 2020

AT – Graz, 2015 | Hospitality

Arthouse café concept

Kunsthaus Graz is renowned for its almost futuristic architecture and has since last year had a new museum café. What sounds like a traditional Viennese coffeehouse has actually been given a very charming and leisurely contemporary feel.

It does not look as spectacular as the biomorphic blob architecture of the extension which the architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier christened “Friendly Alien”, but has no other qualities instead. In the old building, the so-called Iron House, a charming industrial mood prevails with a plain floor, walls and ceilings made of fair-faced concrete. By contrast, the interior architecture is playful, combining furniture from different epochs and consciously eschewing any uniformity such as is otherwise to be encountered in the country of coffee houses. The new café is decidedly cosmopolitan and leisurely, offering WIFI and power sockets to complement the classical range of newspapers. Variety is a key part of the overall arthouse café concept.